Dear Families
This week we have revealed the full details of our new expeditions for all cohorts.
G30
G30’s HUMAN expedition has the guiding question: ‘Why do we need to honour all those who made sacrifices during WWI?’.
This involves study of unheard voices of WWI; students will put together a radio broadcast narrating their own creative writing – this will be broadcast as part of remembrance later this year.
G30’s STEAM expedition has the guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’. Students are studying nutrition & digestion, energy stores and transfer and separating mixtures through respective lenses of food poverty, fuel poverty and access to clean drinking water. Working with our partners Edberts House, students will put together food boxes to share with families in need, with a balanced set of recipes for a week.
A date for your diary – G30’s presentation of learning is scheduled for Thursday 28th March. More details to follow.
G29
G29’s expedition has the guiding question ‘What is Power?’. In this cross-curricular expedition students will explore the concept of “imbalance” and how this often leads to changes both in a social or historical setting but also in a scientific context, bringing them back to the idea of what power means in science, in the context of tectonic forces and in society..
This PoL will be anchored by performances of key scenes from the play.
A date for your diary – G29’s presentation of learning is scheduled for Wednesday 27th March. More details to follow.
G28
G28’s bumper 16-week long new expedition has the guiding question: ‘How can we continue to make progress on public health?’ Students are looking at public health over time since the Medieval Period and will write a report into health inequalities in Gateshead today, based on a variety of factors which contribute to our health including smoking, diet. Students will do the complex task of looking at the correlation between disease and deprivation.
G28’s PoL will be a ‘Cost of Living Conference’ which is scheduled to be held in school on Friday 10th May. Again more details to follow.
The week ahead
Staff Day – Monday 22nd January
Monday is the second of our staff days this half term. Our staff team will be working on school priorities as part of our ongoing school improvement plan. Students will not be expected to be in school on Monday.
G29 Theatre visit – Macbeth, York Grand Opera House Theatre – Tuesday 23rd January
Year 8 students are travelling to York to see a performance of Macbeth. This is the English Literature text for their current expedition. We are delighted to be able to provide this opportunity for our children.
See our website post for details on timings for the day and lunch requirements.
Local Governors Committee (LGC) meeting, Thursday 25th January
On Thursday, we will have our Spring term LGC meeting. Our LGC is set up to provide support and challenge to XPG leadership around the three dimensions of XP: Beautiful Work, Character Growth and Academic Success.
Our LGC:
| Andrea Mead | Chair | Headteacher , Specialist provision |
| Jane Sutton | Governor/Parent | Primary Link Advisor, Gateshead LEA |
| James Renwick | Governor/Parent | Y6 primary teacher |
| Elizabeth Shipley | Governor/Parent | Senior Clinical Psychologist |
| Phil Latham | Governor | CEO Endeavour Academies |
| Julie Mosley | Principal | XP Gateshead |
| Steph Oliver | Staff/Governor | Leader at Norton School, XP Trust |
PE this week
- Due to the staff day, G30 (Year 7) do not have PE this week, we will attempt to rebalance this in a future week.
- G29 (Year 8)
- Class 1 have PE on Friday this week
- Class 2 have PE on Wednesday this week.
- G28 (Year 9)
- Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
- Class 2 have PE on Tuesday and Thursday this week (to account for the missed PE last week)
Looking Ahead
SLCs for G29 and G30
If you have not already done so, please make sure that you have booked an SLC slot for the SLCs which start from Monday 29th January.
Passage Presentations for G28
Passage presentations are an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning and their readiness to move on to the next phase of their education. Your children will present to a panel of you, their Crew Leader and a guest for e.g. governing body member or expert professional. Their presentation will reflect on their progress from Year 7 to now and will outline their thoughts about potential future pathways.
These passage presentations will take place during the day on Monday 11th March, and Tuesday 12th March. You will be given an opportunity to book a slot in a similar way as you have done for SLCs.
Information evening for G28 Families
As well as passage presentations which will feed into students making decisions about future studies at GCSE level, our Duke of Edinburgh programme will also accelerate over this coming term.
We are inviting all families of G28 students to attend an information evening where we can share our rationale and key dates for Passage, Duke of Edinburgh and GCSE studies with you, and of course importantly how you can support this process.
This event will take place on the evening of Thursday 8th February at 5.30pm.
Presentations of learning (PoLs)
As we grow as a school, it becomes increasingly challenging to schedule presentations of learning across cohorts. We have been delighted with your engagement with these PoLs as families and want this to continue. PoLs are an important part of our planned approach to character development and students demonstrating and leading their own learning.
Moving forwards, we are going to schedule PoLs earlier in the daytime – typically at around 4.30pm. This will make it more manageable for us to be able to staff these events. We recognise that may be more challenging for families to attend which is why we are giving as much notice as possible for dates. We will confirm the times for the upcoming PoLs mentioned above as soon as we can.
One of the things that we are really proud of and think makes us special as a school is the level of parental engagement and support that we get from you.
Julie Mosley
Principal